ObjectivesTo investigate whether ureteroscopy (URS) before radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) for upper tract urothelial carcinomas (UTUCs) has an impact on oncological outcomes. Patients and MethodsWe performed a systematic literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE for citations published prior to September 2017 that described URS performed on patients with UTUC and conducted a standard meta-analysis on survival outcomes. ResultsOur meta-analysis included eight eligible studies containing 3975 patients. The results were as follows: cancer-specific survival (CSS; hazard ratio [HR] 0.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.59-0.99; P = 0.04), overall survival (OS; HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.48-1.21; P = 0.24), recurrence-free survival (RFS; HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.69-1.14; P = 0.37), metastasis-free survival (MFS; HR 1.06, 95% CI 0.82-1.36; P = 0.66), and intravesical recurrence-free survival (IRFS; HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.29-1.77; P < 0.001). When excluding previous bladder tumour history, the result for IRFS was a HR of 1.81 (95% CI 1.53-2.13; P < 0.001). ConclusionsThis meta-analysis indicated that URS before RNU did not have a negative impact on CSS, OS, RFS, or MFS in patients with UTUC. However, patients were at higher risk of intravesical recurrence after RNU when they had undergone URS before RNU. Further studies are needed to assess the effects of post-URS intravesical chemotherapy on intravesical recurrence.

Aptamers are artificial oligonucleotides (DNA or RNA) selected in vitro that bind a broad range of targets with high affinity and specificity; a sensitive yet simple method to utilize aptamers as recognition elements for the development of biosensors (aptasensors) is to transduce the signal electrochemically. So far, aptasensors have been applied to clinical diagnostics and several technologies are in development. Aptasensors will extend the limits of current clinical diagnostics. Although the potential diagnostic applications are unlimited, the most current applications are foreseen in the areas of biomarker detection, cancer clinical testing, detection of infectious microorganisms and viruses. This review attempts to list examples of the research progresses of aptamers in biosensor platforms that have been published in recent years; in particular, we display cases of aptasensors that are already incorporated in clinical diagnostics or have potential applications in clinical diagnostics.

BackgroundRecent controversy has surrounded the question of whether xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) contributes to the pathogenesis of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). To investigate the question in a Chinese population, 65 CFS patients and 85 blood donor controls were enrolled and multiplex real-time PCR or reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) was developed to analyze the XMRV infection status of the study participants. The assay was standardized by constructing plasmid DNAs and armored RNAs as XMRV standards and competitive internal controls (CICs), respectively.ResultsThe sensitivities of the multiplex real-time PCR and RT-PCR assays were 20 copies/reaction and 10 IU/ml, respectively, with 100% specificity. The within-run precision coefficient of variation (CV) ranged from 1.76% to 2.80% and 1.70% to 2.59%, while the between-run CV ranged from 1.07% to 2.56% and 1.06% to 2.74%. XMRV was not detected in the 65 CFS patients and 65 normal individuals out of 85 controls.ConclusionsThis study failed to show XMRV in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and plasma of Chinese patients with CFS. The absence of XMRV nucleic acids does not support an association between XMRV infection and the development of CFS in Chinese.